Sensitive Words: Photoshop Strikes Again

Pictionary Curse: Fish (鱼 yú) plus veggie chicken (素鸡 sùjī) plus 7-Up (七喜 Qīxǐ) may sound like it equals a delicious meal, but in Shanghai dialect, it spells “Go die, Secretary Yu.” This and many images like it have been pulled off the Internet.

As of December 25, the following search terms are blocked on Sina Weibo (not including the “search for user” function):

Other:
– seven Standing Committee members (七常委)
– often atrophy (常萎 cháng wěi): Sounds the same as “Standing Committee members” (常委)
– long atophy (长萎): Same as above.
– elders (长老): Refers to the PSC.
– River Elegy (河殇): The groundbreaking 1988 CCTV documentary about the decline of Chinese civilization.

All Chinese-language words are tested using simplified characters. The same terms in traditional characters occasionally return different results.

CDT Chinese runs a project that crowd-sources filtered keywords on Sina Weibo search. CDT independently tests the keywords before posting them, but some searches later become accessible again. We welcome readers to contribute to this project so that we can include the most up-to-date information. To add words, check out the form at the bottom of CDT Chinese’s latest sensitive words post.